Command & Conquer: Generals 2 will be free-to-play

Just as Ubisoft did earlier in the day, EA appears to be advancing hard on the free-to-play market. It appears pretty lucrative at present (you only need a handful of players to become regular ‘microtransaction’ users for a title to pay off), but as publishers rush to pump out as many browser games as possible that pool of players will inevitably become smaller and more fragmented.

I’m sure publishers know that though, because it’s not like them to chase aimlessly after the latest gaming goldrush fad.

Speaking of which, EA has announced a new Command & Conquer free-to-play ‘hub’, which will ultimately encompass multiple free-to-play Command & Conquer titles. They’ll be kicking off with the forthcoming Command & Conquer: Generals 2 which, yes, is now going to be a free-to-play game.

All of the planned games will run off the Frostbite 2 engine (so at least they’ll be a bit more visually exciting than the dreadful Tiberium Alliances) and the next two titles should be from the Red Alert and Tiberium strands of the Command & Conquer ‘universe’.